A look at the Boston Celtics as they head into the 2012-13 NBA season:

The big story

It was a tale of two seasons in Boston last year, in which age, egos and the lingering effect of the lockout seemed destined to doom the team early on, when the Celtics got off to a 15-17 start. But, fueled by tweaks to the lineup—making defensive whiz Avery Bradley a starter and moving Kevin Garnett to center—Boston rallied to go 24-10 in the second half, defying expectations and age to reach the East final, where they took Miami to a seventh game in a thrilling series.

In the offseason, the Celtics were faced with the possibility of losing veteran free agents Garnett and Ray Allen, but made a huge score just before free agency started when Garnett re-signed for three years. That assured the Celtics that they’d return the starting five of Rajon Rondo, Bradley, Paul Pierce, Brandon Bass and Garnett, with coach Doc Rivers at the helm.

Allen, though, was a different story, shocking folks in Boston by signing with the rival Heat. To replace him, the Celtics signed bench scorer Jason Terry, the Sixth Man of the Year in 2009, coming off a season in which he averaged 15.1 points. They also pieced together a deal for Courtney Lee, another guard who can score (38.6 percent career 3-point shooting) and is also capable of providing solid defense.

The Celtics are also hoping to (finally) get some return from the Kendrick Perkins trade in 2011, as Jeff Green (who also missed last year with a heart condition) has been cleared to play and was re-signed to a hefty four-year, $36 million deal. There are some questions about the frontcourt depth, though, as Boston will rely on rookie Jared Sullinger and even took a flier on center Darko Milicic.

The play of the revamped bench will be important because over the last few years, depth has been an issue. Garnett is 36 and Pierce turns 35 this month, and Rivers would like to ease the burden on those players. He’d like to do the same for Rondo, who basically had no backup last year and played 36.9 minutes per game, 42.6 minutes in the playoffs. If the Celtics are to repeat the kind of success they had last year, they will need more support from the reserves.

Keep an eye on …

While Garnett rightly deserves credit for the numbers he put up last year (15.8 points, 8.2 rebounds per game), Pierce rarely gets the attention he deserves. With the Celtics struggling offensively for chunks of last year, Pierce took on a bigger role despite his advancing age, taking more shots per game (14.6) than he had since 2006-07, the season before the Big Three era started, and averaging 4.5 assists—also his highest average since ’06-07. He had some dips in shooting percentage that came along with the greater load (44.3 percent from the field, 36.6 percent from the 3-point line), but he averaged 19.4 points and was Boston’s most reliable player from start to finish.

Pierce has been able to maintain his effectiveness because he does not rely on athleticism to create space but rather has a series of herky-jerky moves to get his midrange jumper off. And for a guy who isn’t much of a leaper, he is a strong finisher at the rim. You can’t help but suspect that Pierce’s age is going to set him on a decline at some point, but it certainly was not last year. Might it be this year? The addition of Green should allow Rivers to give Pierce more rest, but judging by the way he played last year, Pierce still has plenty left in the tank, and the Celtics still need every bit of his production.

Strategy session

The role of “defensive coordinator” in Boston has been a well-respected one around the league, with Tom Thibodeau and Lawrence Frank using the position as a stepping stone for head coaching gigs. Last year, Mike Longabardi took over that role, and though those three provide a range of personalities, one thing that has stayed pretty constant is the Celtics’ defense. Rivers deserves some plaudits for that.

No team has more consistently defended the halfcourt better than the Celtics, who ranked first in the league in defensive efficiency in the halfcourt last year, according to Synergy Sports. They were second the previous year, and fifth the year before that. They’re consistently good against post-ups (second in the league three straight years) and have developed into one of the best teams in the NBA at guarding pick-and-rolls, proficient at executing high traps and rotations. It helps to have Garnett, of course, but even with the very different players he has had next to him (Bass, Jermaine O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal, Nenad Krstic), the Celtics have managed to defend the paint and the post as well as any team in the league.

Outside view (from an East scout): “You kind of keep counting them out and keep expecting this to be the year things fall off, but they don’t fall off. (Jason) Terry was a great signing; he is going to light it up for them right from the beginning. I am not sold on Courtney Lee or Jeff Green for that matter. They gave those guys a lot of money and they can’t be sure how they’re going to fit in. But if that second unit plays up to its potential, Doc (Rivers) is going to have more to work with in terms of depth and rotation possibilities than he has ever had, with any of the teams he has had.”

Inside view (from coach Doc Rivers): “Danny (Ainge) and his staff did an amazing job. When you are under the restrictions we were under, if you told me we would have ended up with what we ended up with, I would have thought that would never have happened. A lot of things had to happen for us. Jason Terry had to want to play for us—he almost sent out the feeler to us before we went to him, which was terrific. It is funny, with Courtney Lee, we wanted him but we decided there was no way we could go after him because he was a restricted free agent. And the day Houston released him, I was walking down the street in Winter Park and I saw him across the street, and I commandeered him. Next thing you know, we are having dinner. Two or three days later, he was a Celtic. A lot of good things happened quickly.”

Our view: For the first time in five years, the Celtics did not win their division by a double-digit margin last season, nudging the Knicks by 3.0 games. The Atlantic will be tougher this year, with New York having improved, the rebuilt Nets healthy and moving to Brooklyn, and even the Sixers and Raptors potentially getting better. Still, the Celtics should be the best team in the division, and likely make them the second-best team in the East, behind Miami. Ultimately, Boston can compete with the Heat, but the Celtics are most certainly a notch below. Surviving the Atlantic won’t be easy but is probable; dealing with Miami will be next to impossible.

Rotation

There will be some question as to the starting shooting guard until Bradley—who’s still recovering from offseason shoulder surgeries—returns, but once he is back, it is most certainly his job. The other major question comes with the backup bigs, especially rookies Fab Melo and Sullinger.